Skyrim on PlayStation VR: Tips and tricks for survival!

Skyrim can be an unforgiving place, but these tricks ought to help you thrive.

Skyrim has arrived for PlayStation VR allowing you the ability to really feel like you are traveling the world. This huge, open world game has dragons, magic, combat, necromancers, vampires...and a whole lot more. While it is true that you can do, well, just about anything, having a few tricks up your sleeve can definitely help keep you alive. Whether this is your first visit to Skyrim, or you're returning for the umpteenth time, these tips and tricks should help you survive the journey.

Take advantage of new VR features to wreak havoc

When to comes to movement, and controls, PlayStation VR gives you two options. You can opt for either a DualShock 4 controller, for a more classic experience, or embrace the immersive abilities that using a pair of PlayStation Move controllers grants. Each controller option also gives you access to different modes of moving.

You can swing your sword, or actually throw up your arm to block shots with your shield.

While a DualShock controller gives you the more classic experience, using a pair of Move controllers really makes you feel like you are fighting off monsters. You get access to teleportation for movement, and combat is a completely different kind of experience. Using your Move controllers make the experience far more immersive, letting you swing your sword or actually throw up your arm to block shots with your shield.

While your movement does default to teleportation when you start, if you prefer direct movement, you can switch between the two movement options from within the main menu. You're able to pop between these movement options whenever you feel like it. This means you can opt for direct movement or teleportation, but you're never completely locked into either. You do get some serious advantages by opting for teleportation, even if it feels a bit weird at times. Additionally, you can now wield magic with both hands, which is new to Skyrim and makes tossing spells as a mage more dangerous than ever.

Step by step instructions to switch between types of movement.

Open the main menu.

Select gameplay settings.

Select VR.

Select movement.

Choose your movement type.

Keep an eye out

Unlike playing normally, from your couch, playing Skyrim VR puts you right in the middle of the action. Instead of rotating the camera while you play, when you're running across a mountain in VR, you'll want to look around. This is for two different reasons.

First of all, keeping an eye out on your surroundings will ensure that nothing sneaks up on you. Sure, most baddies are going to make noise that will alert you to their presence, but that isn't always the case. The other reason is that Skyrim is chock full of quests, towns, dungeons, and areas for you to explore. If you're only ever looking directly ahead, you're gonna miss out on half of the fun. Of course being able to look up and fall into the stars is also worth it, so make sure you look around and see everything that Skyrim VR has to offer.

Decide how you want to play Skyrim

While Skyrim VR gives you tons of choices as to what kind of gameplay you want to pursue, having an idea of how you want to play when you're creating your character can be handy. That's because certain races get different bonuses. These bonuses come in the form of Starting skill bonuses, Racial Perks, and Special Abilities.

If you know that you want to follow a certain quest line, or you tend towards a specific type of gameplay, you can choose a race that will help you out. Having those early bonuses can help you start out with a boost aimed towards the type of skills you're going to be using. Since Skyrim skills level up depending on how often you use them, having some early perks can make the difference between life and death in the early game.

Companions are good for more than fighting

While you can count on your companions to be a solid sidekick when you're leaping into the fray of combat, they're good for more than that. Skyrim VR employs a carrying limit, which means if you overburden yourself, combat is going to be much more difficult.

That's where your companion comes in. If you make sure that you empty out their inventory before leaving town, you can load them up with equipment when you overburden yourself. Then when you get back to a town you can store or sell both the items that you, and your companion are carrying around.

Potions and items are the keys to success

When it comes to buffing yourself before a nasty fight, or surviving after a fall, then potions and scrolls are going to be your go to. Especially in the early game. Snagging a healthy inventory of health potions will be key to survival, and it definitely doesn't end there.

Items are absolutely everywhere, and while some of them are more useful than others, keeping an eye out for rare items can be ridiculously useful. There are treasure maps, Daedric Artifacts, weapons, armor, and so, so, much more to delve into. Dungeons that you accidentally wander across often have some awesome items just lying around waiting for you to snag them.

Save, save often and save even when you think you don't need to save

While Skyrim does have an autosave feature that kicks in when you enter and leave towns, it's easy to go more than an hour between autosaves. In order to make sure that you don't have to backtrack, or retrace your tracks, you need to save. A lot.

Save, and save often, if you want to be sure that you aren't losing any progress when you die. Because let's face it, you're gonna die, and nobody wants to be stuck trying to remember how to get to that awesome dungeon you found in the forest. Skyrim is filled with locations you can literally stumble onto, and saving often is key to keeping your progress. The easy rule to go by is that if you can't remember when you last saved, it's time to save again.

Be the Dragonborn you want to be

Skyrim VR gives you more options than you can possible jump at all at once, because it goes the extra mile. It lets you play the game you want to play, whether that means following the main quest line, dealing with the Civil War between Imperials and the Storm Cloaks, becoming a vampire, or going to the dark side and becoming a master Assassin with Dark Brotherhood. Everything that you could do in the original game is here for you in VR, and that means that this time when you visit Skyrim it'll feel more real than ever.